


Forgiveness Is a Flaw...

by NonsensicallyCereal



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Error-Centric, Fluffy, Fluffy Angst, Multi, and b) manipulative, angsty, ink is a) heartless
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-22 20:52:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NonsensicallyCereal/pseuds/NonsensicallyCereal
Summary: ...And a VirtueError gets stuck in the multiverse house. Scarlet is invited over, but there aren't enough rooms for one of his own.How will being roommates with a destroyer of universes go?(fluffy)





	1. Sound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh dear

….  
…  
…  
It is quiet here. So quiet that it’s deafening. The sheer whiteness of it all blinded, the absolute silence deafened, the complete lack of friction, of texture, was simply too much.  
In all of this nothing, however, there was a something. This nameless entity sat on the whiteness around them. Their chest rose and fell in a steady but silent motion.  
They were, in fact, asleep.  
They had a tendency to do that these days.

There was not much else to do in this nothingness, anyway.

At some point, the being stirred, and got up. They began to walk in a direction.  
They didn’t know what direction they were going in. It could be backwards, or sideways, or upside-down. In the nothingness, there was nothing to see, and so you saw nothing.

Walking was one of the other things you could do in the nothing.

At another point, the creature sat down. They had tired of walking. They had tired of sleeping.  
They wanted a sound.  
They _needed_ a sound.  
There was nothing else to make sound, so they began muttering to themselves. It was an odd but welcome sensation, feeling their (nonexistent) voice box stretch and their (non corporeal) lungs inflate further than normal.  
_What was normal anymore?_  
Eventually, the skeleton realised that muttering was not enough. They raised their voice slightly, saying bits and pieces of phrases and old, half-remembered song lyrics.

This speaking was still not loud enough. Each sound was swallowed by the nothing. They slowly spoke louder.  
And louder.  
And louder still, until they were shouting. And still, they could hear nothing. They could see nothing. They could _feel_ nothing.  
And so they _screamed_. A wordless, meaningless wail that went on and on.

They screamed until their throat was dry, and then they screamed some more.

~

The entity thought it was an echo, at first. They had stopped screaming for a second to take a breath, and had heard their own vocals continuing without a source. The skeleton got up excitedly and began running in the direction they thought they heard the echo, because an echo must mean that there is something for sound to bounce off! A substance! They smiled as they ran.  
“Help!” The creature shouted.  
_Help, help, help…_ the echo continued.  
But then, something strange happened. There was a laugh.  
The entity had not laughed.  
…  
This must mean there is something other than the entity in this nothing! Something that can produce sound!  
Heedless of danger, of rationality, the monster picked up their pace. They ran faster than they could ever remember running before.

The skeleton was not aware that they were following the laughter in circles.

 

Eventually, they could not run any farther. They sat down with a silent _whumpf_ on the ground, which means they silently sat. They could still hear the laugher. The soft echoes of _help._  
Now that the creature had calmed slightly, they thought that the sounds were slightly mocking.  
“Hello?” The entity asked the nothingness.  
“ _Hello,_ ” replied the nothingness.  
“Oh.” The skeleton said, slightly overawed.  
“ _Ah,_ ” the voice said, not very awed at all.

There was a moment of silence. The entity found themselves quite uncomfortable with that moment, so they hummed softly as they thought of something to say.  
“How are I?” The skeleton finally asked. There was something off with that question, but they were unsure of what the error was.  
“ _You?_ ” The voice replied, mildly confused.  
“You.” The being confirmed.  
“ _Hmmm.._ ”  
And then the nothingness said nothing.

It took a moment for the entity to realise that there was not going to be a reply.  
They could feel their bones begin to shake. The skeleton whimpered.  
“Come back!” The creature shouted, desperate.  
“Please!” They continued. They pleaded. Begged. And the nothingness ignored them. Finally the silence set back in. White noise flooded them, worming its way into their mind until it filled everything. And so they screamed to get the noise away.  
_They screamed until the voices_ _started screaming back._


	2. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> smol local bean makes decisions and regrets them

The voices were arguing again. They hadn’t stopped for… a while. Time was a foreign concept to this place, brought only by whatever ticks invaded it, soon crushed and absorbed into the nothing.

As such, the being could not pinpoint how long the voices had been arguing. All they knew was that they appreciated the sound.

It was the only sensation they had in this nothing.  
At some point, the voices began to quiet, and the entity had to begin searching for a new topic of conversation. This was a routine that had been going on for a while, now. Unfortunately, the being did not remember much except the nothing, and as such did not have much to talk about.  
“So, how about those… slippers, eh?” The skeleton said. Very well done. A true conversation-starter.

 _Slippers? What slippers?_  
_The ones on its feet, dumb-ass._  
_Yes, nice slippers! Where did you get them?_  
_Do you want an apple? A pear? Get your shelves for only four pound yesterday!_  
_Why are we talking about slippers._  
_Can I have a slipper?_  
_No, you cannot have a slipper._  
_Let them have a slipper._  
_They are not our slippers._  
_Why don’t we go outside and get so-_  
_SHH!_  
_We do not speak of outsi-_  
_WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT SLIPPERS OH BOY DEFINITELY NOT ABOUT OUTSIDE NO WAY HO-ZAY-_  
_Shut up! It can hear us!_

By this point, the skeleton was quite interested. This term, ‘outside’, seemed vaguely familiar…. but they couldn’t quite… remember…  
“What is outside?” They asked. The voices went quiet, and the entity whimpered in fear. “Don’t go, please, I won’t talk about outside if you don’t want me to just please don’t goIdon’twanttobealone-“  
_It’s okay._  
_We should tell you anyway, I guess._  
_Outside is the place that is Not Here._  
_Hahaha, very informative._  
_Outside is nice! Lots of things!_  
_Much stuff, many enjoys._  
_It has sounds~_

“How do I get to this outside?” The being asked, excited. They wanted to see these things! Hear these sounds!  
_Just open a portal! Easy!_  
 _Hush! We weren’t supposed to tell it!_  
 _Too late now._  
_Portal_. The being vaguely recalled that a portal.. moved you from one place to another! How convenient!  
All they had to do was make a portal, and they would be Outside!

So they concentrated. They spent all their energy on it, using whatever hints the voices dropped, and eventually…  
The nothing seemed to shift and waver. Small quadrilaterals seemed to float away from a space to reveal another place! Outside! The being had done it!

With reckless abandon, the being stumbled outside, more than ready to explore.  
And regretted it. It was too much. Too much! The voices howled at him, urging him to go anywhere, to get away, it wasn’t safe-!  
“Hello?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> queue the events of Ask Error memory line (spirittale)
> 
> also this is short because i can't concentrate to save my life and i think i'll get stuff out more if i post short stuff (most of which i write in one sitting) instead of waiting three years for a decently-sized chapter.  
> sorry i guess.


	3. Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we've skipped to the events of Ask!Error and blueberry is alone in the anti-void  
> and he meets a genie

“Why do you destroy universes?” Swap!Sans, better known as Blueberry, asked. The subject of his questioning scowled, the rectangles of glitched, infected coding around him growing more agitated in accordance to his mood.

“None of your business.” Error cut his tone rough, trying to make his prisoner get the hint that he did _not_ want to talk (even though he did) and especially not about his self-imposed job.

 

“Well, actually, it is! Because my universe got affected by it! I was just asking.”

“Stop asking, then, or I’ll string up your human’s SOUL with the rest of them!” Error pointed a golden phalange at the offending SOUL, which seemed to shiver and whizzed around behind Blue. Error scoffed at the SOUL’s cowardliness.

 

There was a moment of silence, which Error was oddly unnerved by, before a voice piped up.

_It’s been ages since you’ve destroyed anything!_

And of course, as one spoke, the rest chimed in.

_Yeah! Getting lazy, are we, glitch?_

_It’d be much better if you actually made a use of yourself!_

_Come on, Error, get out there and rid the multiverse of those mistakes!_

“I'm going out. I need to clear my mind.” Was tossed carelessly over his shoulder, and then he was gone.

 

 

For a while, Blueberry simply sat on the ground and stared up at the strings hovering above him. His human’s SOUL rested in his hands, seemingly content to stay there until he moved.

Which he did. Getting bored of sitting, Blueberry decided to explore the white space around him. He picked a direction and walked.

And walked.

And walked.

In fact, he lost track of time or steps or anything, really, just enjoying the sensation of actually moving. So it was more than a surprise when he glanced up and didn’t see any strings. Or any SOULs.

 

Blueberry slowed to a stop, looking around anxiously, before seeing something faintly in the distance. He hastened toward it, to find it was… an ink bottle. Blueberry frowned. Error didn’t seem the type to leave bottles of ink around!

 

Maybe he could use it. It wouldn’t hurt anyone, now, would it? And he had little else to do now, and he was also lost. Blueberry took his gloves off, picked up the bottle and tipped it so a drop would fall on his finger.

Bright pink paint landed with a little _plop!_ on the tip of his phalange. Blue was so startled he dropped the bottle, then laughed at himself awkwardly.

“Ha ha… I thought it was ink!” Blue said as his human’s SOUL zoomed over.

Quite unexpectedly, the small puddle began to ripple. Then it actually spread out, large enough that Blueberry could lie down on it easily, and then it turned into a skeleton.

Wait.

 _That’s not normal_ , Blue thought to himself. He looked again, just to make sure. No, the puddle hadn’t _turned into_ a skeleton, as the puddle was still there, a skeleton had _come out_ of the puddle. Whilst no less normal, at least it wasn’t animated puddles.

“Hello! Are you a genie?” Blueberry asked, shifting his lights to stars and hoping the newcomer wasn’t aggressive. The human SOUL whooshed under his shirt, hiding in the safety of Blue’s ribcage.

The new skeleton chuckled as they started to take more detailed shape. The sound had an oddly empty ring to it. As the last remnants of their scarf finished forming, they said, “Of course I’m a genie! I’m the paint genie. Call me Ink. You must be some kind of Swap!Sans.” Ink’s voice was hollow and slightly monotone. They kept absolute eye contact with Blue.

“Yeah. Error’s been calling me Blueberry, though.”

At this, Ink narrowed their eye sockets. “Error, you said?”

“Yeah! He’s my kidnapper, and he’s kinda mean but I think he just needs a friend!”

A grin grew on the new skeleton’s face. A mischievous grin. “A friend, huh? And you’ve been being his friend?”

“Mmhm! Although I miss my brother. You haven’t seen him around, have you?”

“… No, I haven’t. I’ll keep an eye socket out though. What do you say I get you outta here?”

It was tempting. Very tempting. But Blueberry had an obligation! A goal! He would not abandon his friend Error to the maddening void around them! He said so to Ink, whose grin only got impossibly wider, much to Blue’s amazement.

“Ah, but you won’t! See, I have a plan… and all it needs is your three wishes… “

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how long has it been, a year? idk  
> anyway i hope the next chapter comes out soon but who knows right  
> if you want more content head onto my tumblr where i draw and reblog stuff occasionally
> 
> https://nonsensicallycereal.tumblr.com/


	4. scarlet shows up or something plotty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> owo it has begun, the Actual Thing that's happening!  
> basically from here on out it'll be less plot-oriented? ill try to keep it in chronological order but no guarantees :D

 

Dust gently settled on the faded carpet. There was a moment of silence, followed by a crash and a scream of denial and pain.

The sound was common in this world. Monsters lost their family and friends every day, to fights, assassination, disease or a simple lack of hope.

The commodity of loss made its infliction no less difficult, no less painful, for the Great and Terrible Papyrus.

And it made the townsfolk no less surprised, or saddened themselves, to find Sans had died. He had always been a quiet, simple, _good_ presence, full of jokes and peacemaking in contrast to the crazy world around them.

When the situation was found out, Grillby called Undyne, Undyne ran into Papyrus’s house, (suplexing the door in the process) and Snowdin was suddenly without a guard.

 

So it was more than surprising for the town to see activity in the Skeleton’s household. Sans-and-Papyrus-shaped silhouettes. Sounds. The smell of noodles one night. Folk thought it was vandals, and went to protect their co-captain’s home, only to find it empty. They concluded that the place was haunted.

And when The Great and Terrible Papyrus never returned to Snowdin, when they received a new guardsman to keep order, the town assumed he’d joined his brother.

 

Well, they were right, in a way…

 

~

 

Two pairs of footwear, one heavy boots, the other slippers, carried their owners along a pebbly stone pathway towards what Comic had called ‘the multiverse house’.

The boots’ owner was a tall, broad Skeleton with reddish-purple eyelights, wearing a black leather jacket over a chain mail & shirt and cargo pants. His clothes were immaculate (though the jacket had a few old stains of mustard near one pocket, but it was barely noticeable, shush). His bones were well-scrubbed and shone healthily. The only marr he seemed to carry was the deep open scar over his left socket.

In comparison, however, the slippers belonged to a shorter figure- though still stocky and still a Skeleton -with a faded blue jacket and shorts. His eyes were a tired blueish-white and their sockets were bagged.

 

 

Comic had made a fantastic first impression by dropping in via machine and making some pun about space travel. Scarlet, as he was now known, had almost killed him. Neither were particularly good at social interaction, it seemed. Comic had since explained the Multiverse Theory and, after discovering Scarlet’s loss, invited him to join several other versions of each other.

Normally -as ‘normally’ as one could assume over three days of knowing someone- he had filled the gaps of Scarlet’s silence with any puns, japes or pieces of conversation he could discover. Today, however, both had gone as silent as -heh- the grave. Comic had thought the other might want some time to get his thoughts in shape before confronting the alternates.

Scarlet was having an internal debate- to ask, or not to ask? He was desperately curious as to the system used in keeping several pairs of skeletons in one house, and he was even more curious as to how his lack of a brother odd numbers would affect that system.

_To hell with it,_ he thought to himself.

“COMIC, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU SOME QUESTIONS CONCERNING THIS ‘MULTIVERSE HOUSE’,” He began. The shorter jumped, looking up at him almost bewilderedly, before relaxing and giving an affirmative. Scarlet decided it would be best to hush his tone slightly.

“Firstly, I was wondering how many alternates there are.”

“well, the numbers vary because some still have seperate universes- like the Outer pair, or the Nature bones. There’s, let’s see…” here, Comic trailed off, obviously thinking, and his -already small- footsteps slowed. Scarlet suppressed a scowl and slowed as well, reigning in his LV-induced temper to wait for an answer instead of demanding one.

“Permanently, we have five pairs of brothers, and then about… eleven skeletons in all..”

“That is an odd number.”

“Uh, yeah, that eleventh is an odd case.”

“An Undyne?”

“No, a Sans. He’s just… heh, a glitch in the system, I guess you’d say. He’ll be your roommate ‘cause all the house is occupied… if that’s okay by you?”

“I DO NOT MIND. IT WILL BE INTERESTING AT THE VERY LEAST,” Scarlet decided, raising his voice to normal levels, and gestured for Comic to lead the way along the path again. The two went from silence to quiet, meaningless conversation, and eventually came to a gate. Scarlet wasn’t sure why a second gate was necessary, as there had been one on the outer border of the land, and this one didn’t even have a fence surrounding it. Comic opened the -entirely inexplicable- gate and bowed in mock-gentlemanliness as Scarlet passed him.

 

Not far after the gate was the house. Nestled in a clearing of the spacious forest, and almost covered in plant life, it was nearly invisible despite the fact that it was huge. Scarlet saw that a rather large tree was growing out of one part. Another had an entire three floors -assuming the tall roof was accessible as a floor- added on to the rest of the building, like a tower. He furrowed his brow bones. “IF THERE IS SUCH A LARGE HOUSE, HOW ARE A MERE ELEVEN SKELETONS FILLING IT?”

“remember, br-uh, dude, there’s like another eight pairs of skeletons that hang often enough to have their own rooms, but don’t stay permanently. And we don’t use the roof, haven’t found a ladder to it. Dunno what’s up there. We have one spare room for when someone- usually the kids or Undynes -comes over. Uh, we should head inside. I dunno if everyone’s home, but, y’know, whatevs.”

 

Scarlet certainly felt like everyone was home as soon as he walked in. He was immediately surrounded with alternates of himself and Sans. He was swept up in a storm of greetings and nicknames and Multiverse talk, and by the time one Sans nicknamed Blue offered to show him to his room, he was socially exhausted.

“Thank you very much. I think it would be in our best interests to retire for a little while.”

“of course! you should meet your roommate and get some rest before dinner! The Magnificent Blueberry will be happy to help you with any questions you may acquire!” The Sans proclaimed, opening a wooden door into a comfortable, if plain, space. Scarlet thanked Blue and entered quietly, setting his bags down in the corner. When nothing happened for a minute, he reclined on the couch with a sigh of content.

“ **W-who are _you_ and what are you d-d-doing in my house?”**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd like to apologise profusely for the extensive wait, and thank you for being so patient! basically my attention span was even shorter than usual, so i found it difficult to actually sit down and write, but hopefully i'll be more active!
> 
> i am, however, quite present over on my tumblr! check it out?  
> https://nonsensicallycereal.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ i love error


End file.
